2) In a budget meeting last night, the county commission -- in the wee hours of the morning -- decided to keep the libraries in Miami-Dade County alive for one more year, defying the plan by Mayor Carlos Gimenez to cut back staff and services.
3) The Miami Herald reports on the downgraded bond ratings by Moody's for the Port of Miami. "Bill Johnson, director of PortMiami, dismissed Wall Street concern about rising debt payments and called the facility “the best investment in the world.”
... “When looking at the total seaport debt picture,” Moody’s wrote in its Aug. 27 report, “the port’s net revenues will not be sufficient to reimburse the county for the payment of debt service ...”
It is time for some enterprising reporter to examine anticipated local tax revenues against debt obligations including financing costs of the expansions undertaken for the public: the Performing Arsht Center, the stadiums, the airport and port.
20 comments:
The seaport is a financial disaster? What did you expect with fat Bill Johnson at the helm? Didn't he screw up the airport, PAC, and AA arena construction projects? This is what we get when we hire some incompetent crony without a job posting or a competitive recruitment.
Imagine spending your career in an organization where you are paid over $250k annually, you spend your time going on exotic employer-paid travel junkets, there are low performance expectations or no performance expectations, and you go from executive job to executive job over the course of 30 years without the inconvenience of a job interview. It must be nice!
Dont forget his role at Homestead Air Force Base, doing the bidding of the Rasco gang. That's how he got promoted.
People are focusing a critical eye at our honesty, our management, our ability to pay, and the fact that we are one of the poorest communities in the country. The SEC situation with the City of Miami does not help, nor does the Marlin's deal.
Miami = Detroit! Clean slate and hire real people with real skills to do the work these over paid, incompetent cronies are receiving across the board from County Hall to the City of Miami.
E. Clay Shaw was a different kind of Republican, one who cared for people and the environment. What we have now are these crazy Tea Party people.
If the port is not self-sustaining and can pay the debt, there is no where else to turn.
The Port is a problem. . Too bad it took this long for the truth to come out - when the commitments to pay hundreds of millions are already out there.
No number of upbeat op-Ed's by port officials can hide the mess they are in. What are the revenue projections?
Too bad county officials never asked tough questions about the Port like they did with the libraries. Instead of a blue ribbon panel to reinvent libraries they should convene one of the port budget plans.
Lets talk numbers. How much bond debt does the county have?
Maybe someone can look at the financial statements from the county. But I was under the impression that self-supporting or enterprise operations like the port and the airport were responsible for their own debts.
The question is not only how much debt do we have, but also how are we paying it off? Someone mentioned on this blog that they attended a meeting and the staff showed one debt where we were only paying the interest on the debt, nothing on the principle.
For those who want to know the total property tax backed debt of Miami-Dade County:
$1,189,921,000 principal
Debt service for FY 2014:
Principal: $21,365,000
Interest: $ 53,742,000
Note: This is just debt that is backed by property taxes. It does not include any other kind of debt. I don't know the particulars of how the Seaport gets its financing.
The interest is killing us. Perhaps we need to start thinking like everyday people. Save and pay the debt off, then save the money we would pay in interest for new facilities. No cash, no new purchases. I guess that would be a new way to think about public financing.
I've been advocating paying down the debt for years, to an empty auditorium. If we raised taxes for a fixed period of time AND dedicated the additional revenue to principle payment (like doubling up on your monthly mortgage payment) AND got control of the bond issuing process (fat chance - the bankers make too much money issuing bonds), then we might have a fighting chance to get out from under the debt yoke that is turning this place into another Detroit. But people vote for bond issues, not having the slightest idea of what a bond is. It's discouraging...
The port must also pay 5 milliom dollars this year for a federal judge's ruling that business goes to connected insiders' yet Juan kuryla who is responsible gets a 70 percent raise, to 300,000/yr, paid as a director to be for the next few years.
People understand what debt is. And given what we have been through, and what many are going through, they have a new sensitivity to why it has to be eliminated and we have to live within our means- with cash not credit. I think you are right, with the right campaign, we can raise the money, pay off these bills, don't vote for another bond issue, save our money and pay cash for the facilities we want. Let these investors go to other communities that are stupid enough throw away billions in interest payments. We are a poor community, we can't afford credit and we don't have money to throw away. And I think everyone, not just property owners should help raise the money.
We would have to bring in a professional manager who understands our approach, would give confidence to the people by watching and properly managing every penney of our tax money, and could get us out of debt. These people have a strange view of money. They think there is an endless supply, every time you turn around they want to borrow more money, and now people don't want to be bothered with us.
Your comment reminds me of a comment made by a public "official" at a hearing not long ago. He was going on about a "revenue stream" and I badly wanted to stand up and say, "what do you think we are, cows?" Of course, I couldn't do that, but maybe I should have just interrupted the meeting and said it before the cops tossed me out.
Not everyone would be able to participate in a bill paying plan. There are many people who are barely hanging on and they have to sacrifice and save all year to pay the existing taxes. That is the real reason why the Commission would not go forward on the library tax. We would have to be creative in finding a way to raise the money. The first step is to stop borrowing money. We need to defeat every bond issue these people put up for the vote. Given these managers, the risk level for investors would be great and the interest rates astronomical.
Looks like the whole county is on a "credit card treadmill". All we can do is pay the minimum payment and every time we need something, we borrow more money.
We need a group whose sole function is to follow the money. There is a revealing article in today's Detroit Free Press, titled "How Detroit Went Broke" that details the city's amazing financial history. Interestingly, city officials thought no matter how irresponsible they were, the state would never let them go broke. In the end they got a big surprise!
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